Improvement in stockings



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD V. SEARS, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN STOCKINGS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 50,279. dated October3, 1865.

To all 'whom t may concern:

Be it known that l, EDWARD V. SEARS, of Boston, in the county ofSuli'olk and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement inStockings; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken inconnection with the drawings which accompany and form part of thisspecification, isa description of my invention sufficient to enablethose skilled in the art to practice it.

To support in proper position on the leg of a wearer hose or stockings,garters are and long have been used, notwithstanding the wellknownobjections to their use--viz., their aetion as ligatures to Compress theleg and check the proper circulation of the blood therein, and also theannoyance caused by their slipping and unfastening.

To retain stockings in their proper positions under the variousconditions accompanying daiiy usage, without the employment of anyl'or.n of band, ligature, or garter acting to surround the leg and thusbind or clamp the stocking in its place, is the object of my invention.

Said invention consists in a stocking as a new article of manufacture,when provided in or along the length of the leg with a pocket or seriesof loops, designed to receive a long slender piece of whalebene or otherequivalent material.

I prefer the pocket to the loops, and prefer, also, that it should beformed in the weaving or knitting, butapiece of tape or strip of clothor knit goods may be sewed or otherwise united tothe stocking-leg so asto answer the purpose. To make this addition as little prominent aspossible Iprefer that the long narrow pocket, or the series of loopswhich may be substituted for the pocket, should be on the inside of thestockingleg and on that side of each stocking which, with reference tothe wearer, comes on the inner or protected side of the wearers leg'.

I prefer to have the pocket or series of loops extend from near the soleof the stocking to the top of its leg. The whalebone or other toughyielding substitute therefore, like steel skirt-wire, cane, or rattan,is best provided with a soft pad wound upon or otherwise fastened toeither end to prevent the ends from chafmg the wearer or the stocking. Igreatly prefer the continuous pocket to receive and support thewhalebone over a series of loops for the same purpose, for the reasonthat the pocket is interposed between the leg of the wearer and thewhalebone all along' its entire length.

The whalebone is inserted in the pocket and kept therein by a fewstitches at the top thereof, which are cut or withdrawn when thestockings are to be washed, so that the whalebones can be extracted andused in any other stockings of suitable length.

In the drawings, Figure l shows a portion ot' a stocking-leg inperspective, exhibiting the pocket at a. Fig. 2 is a verticalcross-section taken through a stocking-leg, and showing the material ofthe stocking-supporter and the pocket, both in section at the left-handside. Fig. 3 shows in elevation a portion of the supporter 1) of aboutthe full size, representing it as made ofthe braided or woven-coveredflat steel wire, of which hoop-skirts are made. Fig. 4 shows an edgeview of a supporter, I), ot' about the full size. ln both Figs. 3 and 4the ends of the supporter b are shown as wound or padded with somesuitable soft material. The other views not numbered, show the ends ot'supporters in sections.

I claim- As a new article of manufacture, a stocking which is providedwith means for receiving the supporter b. In witness whereof I havehereunto set my hand this 29th day of August, A. D., 1865.

EDWARD V. SEARS.

F. GoULD.

